The source of the nile

John Hanning Speke was a man of thirty-six, when his Nile Journal appeared. He had entered the army in 1844, and completed ten years of service in India, serving through the Punjab Campaign. Already he had conceived the idea of exploring Africa, before his ten years were up, and on their conclusion he was appointed a member of the expedition preparing to start under Sir Richard (then Lieutenant Burton) for the Somali country.

The nineteenth century, now nearing its close, has made an indelible impression upon the history of the world, and never were greater things accomplished with more marvellous rapidity. Every branch of science, without exception, has shared in this progress, and to it the daily accumulating information respecting different parts of the globe has greatly contributed. Regions, previously completely closed, have been, so to speak, simultaneously opened by the energy of explorers, who, like Livingstone, Stanley, and Nordenskiöld, have won immortal renown.

John Hanning Speke was a man of thirty-six, when his Nile Journal appeared. He had entered the army in
1844, and completed ten years of service in India, serving through the Punjab Campaign. Already he had
conceived the idea of exploring Africa, before his ten years were up, and on their conclusion he was appointed
a member of the expedition preparing to start under Sir Richard (then Lieutenant Burton) for the Somali
country.

The Nubian desert—The bitter well—Change of plans—An irascible dragoman—Pools of the Atbara—One secret of the Nile—At Cassala.
In March, 1861, I commenced an expedition to discover the sources of the Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African expedition of Captains Speke and Grant, that had been sent by the English Government from the South via Zanzibar, for the same object.

When the fathers of the present generation were young men, and George the Third ruled the land, they
imagined that the whole interior of Africa was one howling wilderness of burning sand, roamed over by
brown tribes in the north and south, and by black tribes--if human beings there were--on either side of the
equator, and along the west coast.
The maps then existing afforded them no information. Of the Mountains of the Moon they knew about as
much as of the mountains in the moon. The Nile was not explored--its sources unknown--the course of the
Niger was a mystery.

When the fathers of the present generation were young men, and George the Third ruled the land, they imagined that the whole interior of Africa was one howling wilderness of burning sand, roamed over by brown tribes in the north and south, and by black tribes—if human beings there were—on either side of the equator, and along the west coast. The maps then existing afforded them no information. Of the Mountains of the Moon they knew about as much as of the mountains in the moon. The Nile was not explored—its sources unknown—the course of the Niger was a...